City defender Micah Richards says their rise to the top of the table has led to decisions going against them

City are paying the price for being the upstarts of the Premier League. Micah Richards, the latest Blues player to feel the heat of injustice, believes that the rash of punishments and poor decisions handed out to the club recently may be down to their new-found unpopularity.

Micah Richards of Manchester City protests to Referee Phil Dowd after he awarded a penalty

City are paying the price for being the upstarts of the Premier League. Micah Richards, the latest Blues player to feel the heat of injustice, believes that the rash of punishments and poor decisions handed out to the club recently may be down to their new-found unpopularity.

He dismissed the claim of some City fans that there is some kind of conspiracy by the FA, the referees or the media – or even all three – aimed at undermining their bid for glory this season.

But he does feel that the club has had more than its fair share of bad decisions which have cost them games in recent weeks.

On Wednesday night, Richards was denied the honour of skippering City to the Carling Cup final when he was unfairly adjudged to have handled in the area – when it was plain the ball had cannoned up off his foot.

“I am disappointed with the first decision from the referee because it came off my foot and hit my hand,” said Richards. “I don’t know what he expects me to do.

“If it had hit my hand first I could understand it. But we don’t want to make excuses – Liverpool played a good game, got their tactics right and deserve to go through.”

Missed

Steven Gerrard scored from the penalty spot after ref Phil Dowd’s decision – but Dowd had earlier missed a much clearer penalty when Charlie Adam swept Edin Dzeko’s foot from under him.

Those were the latest in a series of dubious decisions which have helped to slow down City’s lightning start to the season.

It began in November when Mario Balotelli picked up two yellow cards at Anfield, the second for an unintentional waft of the hand which caught Martin Skrtel.

But it stepped up in December when David Silva was denied a clear-cut penalty when City were 1-0 up at Chelsea, and the Blues went on to suffer their first league defeat of the season. They also lost Gael Clichy in that game to two borderline yellow cards.

A late offside goal at Sunderland kicked off 2012 in frustrating fashion, and two days later Gareth Barry was dismissed for two “nothing” bookings against Liverpool.

Then came Vincent Kompany’s red card in the FA Cup derby which has divided opinion, but cost him a four-match ban.

Mario Balotelli also picked up a four-match ban for an apparent stamp on Scott Parker in Sunday’s win over Spurs, a decision which many City fans felt was correct.

But when compared to Peter Crouch’s poke in the eye of West Brom’s Jonas Olsson, which was retrospectively ignored by the FA, it sparked fresh claims of bias against City.

It could strongly be argued that poor, or at least highly contentious refereeing decisions, have cost City their place in both domestic cups, and four Premier League points.

Richards said there is a feeling that the Blues have been hard-done-to, but that they cannot let it ruin their season.

“I wouldn’t say everyone is against us, but when a team comes from nowhere and is doing so well, top of the league, you are going to get decisions against you,” said the big defender.

“We have coped well getting this far in the season, and you could argue some decisions could have been dealt with better, but we can’t dwell on them.

“We just have to move forward. We have a good game with Everton to look forward to next week, so we need to go there and look for three points.”

“The better you do, you will always have more people following you, more people talking about you,” said the powerhouse defender.

“Sometimes it will mean people not liking you, but we have to just try to do what we do best, which is winning games.

“We are not always going to get the decisions that we want but we can’t keep moaning about it as it won’t get us anywhere. We will just have to make sure we win games and the referee doesn’t have to make a decision – to win it without that.

“It would be nice for referees to give us a little bit more, but we don’t want to moan about it too much.”

On the conspiracy theories being touted by some fans, Richards said: “I wouldn’t say there is a conspiracy but no-one likes a team that is doing really well, especially when two or three seasons ago it was a top eight team and is now leading the pack.

“Not everyone will be happy, but it’s down to us to get on with it and not get involved.”

He agreed that in some ways, it is a back-handed compliment: “You can look at it like that. No-one likes a team that is trying to be the best. There will always be people trying to pull you down.

“But we will move on, move forward and take it on the chin. It’s a disappointing result but we need to pick ourselves up.”

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